Irons have all answers and hit fifth spot

West Ham survived a really dodgy half an hour with a large helping of decent defending and a fair bit of luck before recording one of their most comfortable wins of the season.

Funny how often good teams get lucky isn’t it? 😉

Baggies boss Tony Pulis had sprung a surprise on us by pressing high and attacking from the start – when was the last time that happened?

But once the lads had sussed it out after half an hour there was only ever going to be on result and by the end of 90 minutes, Albion had collapsed to their worst home defeat since they were beaten 3-0 on the opening day by Manchester City.

A simple headed goal by Kouyate from Payet’s great cross was followed by a Mark Noble shot which confused Ben Foster as it went through defender Johnny Evans’ legs, and then a close range blast from the skipper after a fine cross from Andy Carroll.

The boost to our goal difference was much needed as we rose into fifth place ahead of Manchester United who entertain champions elect Leicester City at Old Trafford tomorrow – EUROPE IS SO ON!

Albion had three or four early chances with Pulis’ shock tactical approach providing some gilt edged chances for Craig Gardner which he spurned and as the early fizz disappeared Payet, Lanzini, Antonio and to some extent Noble, all startd to make things happen.

AC was a constant threat but the game largely passed Sakho by. For me Kouyate was head and shoulders man of the match with a simple headed goal and brilliant assist in first half injury time with a cutback for Noble after running from inside his own half.

The second half saw us at our best and Payet laid on the third when he took on defenders (at last) to lay on a fabulous ball for Carroll to cross for the skipper’s close range second.

The climax had all seemed very unlikely at the outset but once again the manager came up with all the answers – as he has done so many times this season – to give us our seventh League away win of the season.

What a performance, what a squad, what a boss – it gets no better than this!

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"
Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

4 comments on “Irons have all answers and hit fifth spot”

Well yes it could have been better, we could be where Leicester is. But nevertheless a good performance after a shaky start. It was further undeniable proof of the success of Slav’s strategy of building a team having a large number of players all capable of providing the winning goal, rather than hanging your hat on one supposedly big scorer who has to be fed all the opportunities and ends up firing blanks. As it is now a player like Payet has any number of people he can confidently play one of his needle-threading passes to, knowing the recipient is as likely to put it away as any other.

We have to be careful that we don’t get carried away. West Brom could easily have been 2-0 up before we got into gear, and they’re not the first side to squander chances against us. I agree that the best teams get more than their share of luck, but eventually someone else is going to punish us like Leicester and Bournemouth Friday at the start of the season.